Fletcher in the News

US Order Cranks Up Pressure but Unlikely to Rein in N. Korea; Prof. Lee Weighs in With The Straits Times

Date: September 23, 2017

President Donald Trump's new executive order empowering the Treasury Department to target individuals, companies and banks involved in business with North Korea casts a wide net. It runs the gamut of sectors from construction, energy, fishing and financial services, to information technology, manufacturing, medical, mining, textiles, transportation, and operation of any port of entry on land and sea.

Essentially, Section 4 of the order allows the United States government to freeze any and all funds associated with entities that do any kind of trade with North Korea.

"That is the bunker buster clause, and it is quite a powerful warning," Dr Sung-Yoon Lee, professor of Korean Studies at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Boston, told The Straits Times.